ABSOLUTION
ABSOLUTION is a display board with hand made soaps with iconographic symbols in LED back-lit custom packaging.
The work is a commentary on how citizens’ direct or indirect participation in the system implicates the participants, giving consent to the oppressive hegemonies. For example, the mere act of paying taxes funds agencies and instruments that cause harm to human bodies at home and abroad.
Consequently, a question emerges as to how do we deal with the knowledge that we are part of the problem? We try to wash away our guilt and the blood on our collective hands. Naturally, we try to absolve ourselves from involvement.
The installation is built like a commercial display to give a sense of choice, curiosity, consumption, and spectacle.
In 2025, the United States dedicated approximately $954 billion to total military spending, marking a historic high for defense expenditures. (Source: US Department of War)
ABSOLUTION - THE DEAD SEE
This project is in a way an expansion pack to the Absolution Consent Collection. This soap is part of the “Build Your Own Cleanse” blend. The piece invites the viewers to reflect on our own involvement in the system and to think about what we tell others and ourselves as to why we are participating in these systems of domination and what form our “absolution” takes.
The custom fabricated packaging reads “The Dead See - Mineral Soap: Exfoliating mineral cruelty free vegetable glycerin vegan hand soap. Feel good about washing your hands.”
Visitors are welcome to participate in the installation by washing their hands with the soap. I provided a simple wash basin for visitors to wash their hands in. The close up washing of the hands in the basin is recorded on a video camera.
The soap contains 3D printed articles inside of it in the forms of 3D printed missiles and corpses that create an actual function of exfoliation. However, as more people wash their hands with the soap the more these 3D printed elements emerge and fall into the wash basin.
This ritual reflects the reality of our times. We sort of wash our hands and move on because the suffering doesn’t yet affect us directly.
